Techniques for detecting drift in a deployment orchestrator

ABSTRACT

Techniques for implementing an infrastructure orchestration service are described. A safety plan comprising a list of resources and operations based at least in part on a deployment configuration file can be received. Upon receiving approval of the safety plan, an operation corresponding to at least one of the list of resources can be prepared to be performed. The operation can be compared to the safety plan. If the operation is part of the safety plan, the operation can be performed. If the operation is not part of the safety plan, the deployment can be halted, and a notification that the deployment is not in compliance with the safety plan can be transmitted.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of, and claims the benefit andpriority to U.S. application Ser. No. 17/027,527, filed Sep. 21, 2020,entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR DETECTING DRIFT IN A DEPLOYMENT ORCHESTRATOR,”which is a non-provisional application of, and claims the benefit andpriority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of the following U.S. ProvisionalApplications, the entire contents of which is incorporated by referencefor all purposes:

-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,413, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR DETECTING DRIFT IN A DEPLOYMENT    ORCHESTRATOR”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,335, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR DEPLOYING INFRASTRUCTURE RESOURCES WITH A    DECLARATIVE PROVISIONING TOOL”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,456, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “USER INTERFACE TECHNIQUES FOR AN INFRASTRUCTURE    ORCHESTRATION SERVICE”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,477, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR UTILIZING DIRECTED ACYCLIC GRAPHS FOR    DEPLOYMENT INSTRUCTIONS”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,478, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR RESOLVING APPLICATION UPDATES”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,480, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING DEPENDENCIES OF AN ORCHESTRATION    SERVICE”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,452, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR ROLLBACK OF AN INFRASTRUCTURE ORCHESTRATION    SERVICE”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,486 filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR DEPLOYING INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS IN    PHASES”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,489, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING LONG-RUNNING TASKS WITH A    DECLARATIVE PROVISIONER”;-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,481, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSFERRING DATA ACROSS AIR GAPS”; and-   U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/963,491, filed Jan. 20, 2020,    entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR PREVENTING CONCURRENT EXECUTION OF    DECLARATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE PROVISIONERS”.

This application is also related to Application Serial No. 77/027.507,filed on Sep. 21, 2020, entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING DRIFT IN ADEPLOYMENT ORCHESTRATOR,” the entire contents of which is herebyincorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, under 35 U.S.C.§ 120.

BACKGROUND

Today, cloud infrastructure services utilize many individual services toprovision and deploy code and configuration (respectively) across thecloud infrastructure service's many regions. These tools requiresignificant manual effort to use, especially given that provisioning isgenerally declarative and deploying code is imperative. Additionally, asthe number of service teams and regions grows, the cloud infrastructureservice will need to continue to grow. Some cloud infrastructureservice's strategies of deploying to a larger number of smaller regionsincludes per-region expenditures, which may not scale well.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Techniques for implementing an infrastructure orchestration service aredescribed. In some examples, a safety plan comprising a list ofresources and operations based at least in part on a deploymentconfiguration file can be received. Upon receiving approval of thesafety plan, an operation corresponding to at least one of the list ofresources can be prepared to be performed. The operation can be comparedto the safety plan. If the operation is determined to be part of thesafety plan, the operation can be performed. If the operation isdetermined to not part of the safety plan, the deployment can be halted,and a notification that the deployment is not in compliance with thesafety plan can be transmitted. In some examples, the operation may notbe part of the safety plan if drift has occurred.

In other examples, a computer-readable storage medium can includeinstructions that when executed by a processor can cause the processorto perform various operations described herein. A safety plan can bereceived which can include a list of resources and operations based on adeployment configuration file. An approval of the safety plan can bereceived. An operation corresponding to at least one of the list ofresources according to the deployment configuration file can be preparedto be performed. The operation can be compared to the safety plan. Ifthe operation is determined to be part of the safety plan, the operationcan be performed. If the operation is determined to not be part of thesafety plan, the deployment can be halted, and a notification that thedeployment is not in compliance with the safety plan can be transmitted.

In further examples, a system can include a processor and a memory thatcan store instructions that, when executed by the processor, canconfigure the system to perform operations described herein. A safetyplan can be received which can comprise a list of resources andoperations based at least in part on a deployment configuration file. Anapproval of the safety plan can be received. Based on the approval, anoperation corresponding to at least one of the list of resources can beprepared to be performed. The operation can be compared to the safetyplan. If the operation is determined to be part of the safety plan, theoperation can be performed. If the operation is determined to not bepart of the safety plan, the deployment can be halted, and anotification that the deployment is not in compliance with the safetyplan can be transmitted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, themost significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to thefigure number in which that element is first introduced.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an architecture for implementing at leastsome elements of a cloud infrastructure orchestration service, accordingto at least one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an architecture for implementing at leastsome elements of a cloud infrastructure orchestration service, accordingto at least one embodiment

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram for illustrating an example flock, according toat least one embodiment

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram for illustrating an example flock, according toat least one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a cloud infrastructure orchestrationservice, according to at least one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart for describing a process for using a safety planin a cloud infrastructure orchestration service, according to at leastone embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for describing a process for generating a safetyplan in a cloud infrastructure orchestration service, according to atleast one embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a swim lane diagram for describing how a safety plan isgenerated and used, according to at least one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a disconnected region, according to atleast one embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart for describing a process for using a safety planin a disconnected region, according to at least one embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a distributed system, according to atleast one embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of one or more components of a systemenvironment by which services provided by one or more components of anembodiment system may be offered as cloud services, according to atleast one embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example computer system, in whichvarious embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In some examples, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is one particulartype of cloud computing. IaaS can be configured to provide virtualizedcomputing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In someexamples, IaaS is one of the three main categories (or sub-categories)of cloud computing services. Most consider the other main categories tobe software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS), andsometimes SaaS may be considered a broader category, encompassing bothPaaS and IaaS, with even some considering IaaS to be a sub-category ofPaaS as well.

In an IaaS model, a cloud computing provider can host the infrastructurecomponents (e.g., servers, storage devices, network nodes (e.g.,hardware), deployment software, platform virtualization (e.g., ahypervisor layer), or the like).

In some cases, an IaaS provider may also supply a variety of services toaccompany those infrastructure components (e.g., billing, monitoring,logging, security, load balancing and clustering, etc.). Thus, as theseservices may be policy-driven, IaaS users may be able to implementpolicies to drive load balancing to maintain application availabilityand performance.

In some instances, IaaS customers may access resources and servicesthrough a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet, and can use thecloud provider's services to install the remaining elements of anapplication stack. For example, the user can log in to the IaaS platformto create virtual machines (VMs), install operating systems (OSs) ineach VM, deploy middleware, such as databases, create storage bucketsfor workloads and backups, and install even install enterprise softwareinto that VM. Customers can then use the provider's services to performvarious functions, including balancing network traffic, troubleshootingapplication issues, monitoring performance, managing disaster recovery,etc.

In most cases, a cloud computing model will require the participation ofa cloud provider. The cloud provider may, but need not be, a third-partyservice that specializes in providing (e.g., selling) IaaS. An entitymight also opt to deploy a private cloud, becoming its own provider ofinfrastructure services.

In some examples, IaaS deployment is the processes of putting a newapplication, or a new version, onto a prepared application server or thelike. It may also include the process of preparing the server (e.g.,installing libraries, daemons, etc.). This is often managed by the cloudprovider, below the hypervisor layer (e.g., the servers, storage,network hardware, and virtualization). Thus, the customer may beresponsible for handling (OS), middleware, and/or application deployment(e.g., on self-service virtual machines (e.g., that can be spun up ondemand) or the like.

In some examples, IaaS provisioning may refer to acquiring computers orvirtual hosts for use, and even installing needed libraries or serviceson them. In most cases, deployment does not include provisioning, andthe provisioning may need to be performed first.

In some cases, there are two different problems for IaaS provisioning.First, there is the initial challenge of provisioning the initial set ofinfrastructure before anything is running. Second, there is thechallenge of evolving the existing infrastructure (e.g., adding newservices, changing services, removing services, etc.) once everythinghas been provisioned. In some cases, these two challenges may beaddressed by enabling the configuration of the infrastructure to bedefined declaratively. In other words, the infrastructure (e.g., whatcomponents are needed and how they interact) can be defined by one ormore configuration files. Thus, the overall topology of theinfrastructure (e.g., what resources depend on which, and how they eachwork together) can be described declaratively. In some instances, oncethe topology is defined, a workflow can be generated that creates and/ormanages the different components described in the configuration files.

In some examples, an infrastructure may have many interconnectedelements. For example, there may be one or more virtual private clouds(VPCs) (e.g., a potentially on-demand pool of configurable and/or sharedcomputing resources), also known as a core network. In some examples,there may also be one or more security group rules provisioned to definehow the security of the network will be set up and one or more virtualmachines (VMs). Other infrastructure elements may also be provisioned,such as a load balancer, a database, or the like. As more and moreinfrastructure elements are desired and/or added, the infrastructure mayincrementally evolve.

As noted above, one way to provision the infrastructure is to describeit declaratively. As such, the configuration file may be a declarativefile that merely describes each of the infrastructure components notedabove and how they interact. The configuration file can describe theresource and the relevant fields needed to create the element, and thenas other elements can be described that reference the previouslydescribed elements. In some examples, a provisioning tool can thengenerate a workflow for creating and managing the elements that aredescribed in the configuration file.

In some instances, the workflow of the provisioning tool may beconfigured to perform various commands. One function that can beperformed is view reconciliation, where the provisioning tool cancompare the view of the current infrastructure (e.g., the expected stateof the infrastructure) with how the infrastructure is actually running.In some instances, performing the view reconciliation function mayinclude querying various resource providers or infrastructure resourcesto identify what resources are actually running. Another function thatthe provisioning tool can perform is plan generation, where theprovisioning tool can compare the actually running infrastructurecomponents with what the provisioning tool wants the state to look like(e.g., the desired configuration). In other words, the plan generationfunction can determine what changes need to be made to bring theresources up to the most current expectations. In some instances, athird function is the execution (e.g., apply) function, where theprovisioning tool can execute the plan generated by the plan generationfunction.

In general, provisioning tools may be configured take the configurationfile, parse the declarative information included therein, andprogrammatically/automatically determine the order in which theresources need to be provisioned in order to execute the plan. Forexample, if the VPC needs to be booted before the security group rulesand VMs are booted, then the provisioning tool will be able to make thatdetermination and implement the booting in that order without userintervention and/or without that information necessarily being includedin the configuration file.

In some instances, continuous deployment techniques may be employed toenable deployment of infrastructure code across various virtualcomputing environments. Additionally, the described techniques canenable infrastructure management within these environments. In someexamples, service teams can write code that is desired to be deployed toone or more, but often many, different production environments (e.g.,across various different geographic locations, sometimes spanning theentire world). However, in some examples, the infrastructure on whichthe code will be deployed must first be set up. In some instances, theprovisioning can be done manually, a provisioning tool may be utilizedto provision the resources, and/or deployment tools may be utilized todeploy the code once the infrastructure is provisioned.

As noted above, generally there are two different tools used to handleeach of the provisioning of infrastructure resources and the deploymentsof code to control the infrastructure resources, with orchestrationbetween the two tools being performed manually. However, at scale,manual implementation always leads to deviations. Thus, an automatedtool that can both provision and deploy a virtual infrastructure enablesmore efficient and reliable techniques for implementing a virtual cloudenvironment.

In some examples, when two tools are used, issues can arise when a usermanually makes changes to the code between the provisioning phase andthe deployment phase. As described herein, a technique that uses asingle tool for both provisioning and deploying can alleviate that byautomating the process, such that there isn't an opportunity for manualcode changes. It may be the case, that a slight change to the way inwhich one user codes something, can create major issues in thedeployment phase. In some examples, the first time an operator performsan action in a new region (e.g., a typo in the code), the object thatwas coded with the typo may be that way forever. If the application isdeployed with that typo, and the application is not sensitive to thattypo (e.g., it still works), it is possible that some time down theroad, an additional code change could become sensitive to that typo, andcrash the entire system. Thus, the techniques provided herein can removethe gap between provisioning and deployment that can often lead toproblems.

In general, modeling deployments is declarative such that aconfiguration file can be used to declare the infrastructure resources.For example, create, read, update, delete (CRUD) instructions aregenerally used to generate deployment files using generalRepresentational State Transfer (REST) concepts (e.g., REST ApplicationProgramming Interfaces (APIs)). However, deployment itself doesn'tgenerally follow the same concept. Additionally, while theinfrastructure provisioning tools tend to be really powerful and/orexpressive, the tools for deployment tend to be much more restrictiveregarding the operations they can perform (e.g., they are imperative asopposed to declarative). Thus, there has been a long-felt need for atool that can handle both functional requirements (e.g., provisioningand deployment of infrastructure elements) within a cloud environment.

In some examples, techniques for implementing a cloud infrastructureorchestration service (CIOS) are described herein. Such techniques, asdescribed briefly above, can be configured to manage both provisioningand deploying of infrastructure assets within a cloud environment. Insome instances, the CIOS can include two classes of service: the Centraland Regional components (e.g., CIOS Central and CIOS Regional). Thefollowing terms will be used throughout:

-   -   Infrastructure component—A long-lived piece of infrastructure        that supports running code.        -   Examples: a deployment application, a load balancer, a            domain name system (DNS) entry, an object storage bucket,            etc.    -   Artifact—Code being deployed to a deployment application or a        Kubernetes engine cluster, or configuration information        (hereinafter, “config”) being applied to an infrastructure        component. These may be read-only resources.    -   Deployment task—A short-lived task that is often asscloud        infrastructure serviceated with deploying or testing code.        Additionally, the deployments tasks are modeled as resources        that live no longer than the release that creates them.        -   Examples: “deploy $artifact to $environment,” “watch $alarm            for 10 minutes,” “execute $testSuite,” or “wait for            $manualApproval”        -   For example, CIOS can model a deployment orchestrator            deployment as the creation of a resource that transitions to            the Available state when it completes.        -   Because CIOS maintains the state of its asscloud            infrastructure serviceated declarative provisioner, CIOS can            control the lifecycle of these short-lived resources as it            relates to releases.    -   Resource—a CRUD′able resource.        -   CIOS models each of the constructs listed above as a            resource. The next section discusses this modeling in            detail.    -   Flock—CIOS's sole control-plane resource. Exists primarily to        model ownership of and point at the infrastructure components.    -   Flock config—Describes the set of all infrastructure components,        artifacts, and deployment tasks asscloud infrastructure        serviceated with a single service.        -   Each Flock has exactly one Flock config. Flock configs are            checked in to source control.        -   Flock configs are declarative. They expect CIOS to provide            realm, region, ad, and artifact versions as input.        -   Flocks are granular—a Flock consists of a single service and            supporting infrastructure.    -   State—A point-in-time snapshot of the state of every resource in        the flock.    -   Release—A tuple of a specific version of a flock config and a        specific version of every artifact that it references.        -   Think of a release as describing a state that may not yet            exist.    -   Release plan—The set of steps that the CIOS would take to        transition all regions from their current state to the state        described by a release.        -   Release plans have a finite number of steps and a            well-defined start and end time.    -   Apply—This is a noun. A single attempt to execute a Release        plan. An Execution changes the current State of the Flock.

CIOS can be described as an orchestration layer that appliesconfiguration to downstream systems (e.g., world-wide). It is designedto allow world-wide infrastructure provisioning and code deployment withno manual effort from service teams (e.g., beyond an initial approval insome instances). The high level responsibilities of CIOS include, butare not limited to:

-   -   Providing teams with a view in to the current state of resources        managed by CIOS, including any in-flight change activity.    -   Helping teams plan and release new changes.    -   Coordinating activity across various downstream systems within a        region to execute approved release plans with no human        intervention.    -   Coordinating activity across regions/realms to execute approved        release plans world-wide.

In some examples, CIOS handles onboarding by enabling teams to provideCIOS with configuration information via checked-in code. Additionally,CIOS can automate more things, so this is a heavier-weight exercise thanin previous implementations. In some instances, CIOS handlespre-deployment by offering teams the ability to automatically deploy andtest code. In some instances, CIOS can handle the writing of changemanagement (CM) policy by enabling automatically generating plans toroll out new artifacts (e.g., world-wide) when a team builds them. Itcan do this by inspecting the current state of each region and thecurrent CIOS config (which, can itself be an artifact). Additionally,teams can inspect these plans, and may iterate on them by changing theCIOS config and asking CIOS to re-plan. Once the team is satisfied witha plan, they can create a “release” that references the plan. The plancan then be marked as approved or rejected. While teams can still writeCMs, they are just pointers to the CIOS plan. Thus, teams can spend lesstime reasoning about the plan. Plans are more accurate because they aremachine generated. Plans are almost too detailed for human consumption;however, it can be displayed via a sophisticated user interface (UI).

In some examples, CIOS can handle execution of CMs by automaticallyexecuting the deployment plan. Once release plan has been created andapproved, engineers no longer participate in CMs unless CIOS initiatesroll-back. In some cases, this may require teams to automate tasks thatare currently manual. In some examples, CIOS can handle rolling back achange management (CM) by automatically generating a plan that returnsthe flock to its original (e.g., pre-release) state when CIOS detectsservice health degradation while executing. In some examples, CIOS canhandle deploying emergent/tactical changes by receiving a release planthat is scoped to a subset of regions and/or a subset of the resourcesmanaged by CIOS, and then executing the plan.

Additionally, CIOS may support primitives necessary to define fullyautomated world-wide deployments. For example, CIOS can measure servicehealth by monitoring alarms and executing integration tests. CIOS canhelp teams quickly define roll-back behavior in the event of servicedegradation, then can execute it automatically. CIOS can automaticallygenerate and display release plans and can track approval. In someinstances, the language that teams use to describe desired deploymentbehavior may be declarative. CIOS can combine the functionality of codedeployment and infrastructure config (e.g., provisioning) in one system.CIOS also supports flexible ordering across regions, and acrosscomponents within a region. Teams can express ordering via checked-inconfig. Teams may call CIOS's planning and release APIsprogrammatically.

FIG. 1 depicts an architecture 100 for illustrating techniques forimplementing at least CIOS Central 102. In some examples, CIOS Central102 can be the service that handles operations at the level of a“Flock.” CIOS Central 102 has a few responsibilities, including but notlimited to:

-   -   Serving as an authentication gateway for Flock metadata changes        and release operations.    -   Storing an authoritative mapping of Flock metadata to the        deployment artifacts and CIOS repositories for the flock.    -   Coordinating global Releases across Phases and Targets.    -   Synchronization to enforce policies like “no more than one        ongoing release to a Flock at a time.”    -   Detecting changes to Flock configuration (config) and artifacts,        and triggering a release generation on such changes.

In some examples, a source code version-control management service(SCVMS) 104 can be configured to store authoritative Flock configurationand an artifact notification service (ANS) 106 can be subscribed to byCIOS Central 102, so that CIOS Central 102 can be informed of newartifact builds. The CIOS Central 102 can then map incoming changesagainst the affected flocks, and initiate release planning wheredesired. Additionally, in some examples, an artifact push service (APS)can be invoked by CIOS Central 102, before a release to a target, toensure any artifacts required for a successful release are present inthe target's region ahead of release.

In some examples, customers (e.g., engineers) 108 can call CIOS Central102 to CRUD flocks and/or releases, and to view the status of ongoingCIOS activity. Flock management service 110 can include one or moreAPI's to manipulate flocks, view/plan/approve service 112 can includeCRUD API's to create and approve plans, and to view a central copy ofthe state of all CIOS-managed resources, change monitoring service 114can watch SCVMS 104 for changes to flock config, and can receivenotifications about changes to other artifacts from ANS 106, and stateingester service 116 can create copies of regional state in CIOS Centraldatabase (DB) 118 so that view/plan/approve 112 can expose them. In someexamples, the CIOS Central DB 118 can be a DB of flocks, plans, andstate. Flock information can be authoritative; while everything else maybe a stale copy of data from CIOS Regional 120.

In some examples, engineer 108 can perform an API call for the flockmanagement service 110 (e.g., through the ingress proxy fleet 122) tocreate a list of flocks. The protocol for making such an API call can behypertext transport protocol secure (HTTPS) or the like. Relevant accesscontrol lists (ACLs) for this operation can include a local area network(LAN) 124 or other private connection. For example, CIOS maymanage/control a network-connectivity alternative to using the publicInternet for connecting a customer's on-premises data center or networkwith CIOS (e.g., a dedicated, leased, and/or private connection).Additionally, authentication and authorization (e.g., of the engineer108) may be performed by a reservation system portal that allows usersto manage machine infrastructure (e.g., reservation service). In someinstances, CIOS Central 102 can store flock metadata, plans, and statein the Central DB 118, using Java database connectivity (JDBC) or thelike. In some examples, ANS 106 can be configured to notify the changemonitoring service 114 when new artifacts have been published. The ANS106 may use HTTPS, and both authentication and authorization may behandled by a mutual transport layer security service. Additionally, insome instances, the change monitoring service 114 can poll the SCVMS 104for flock configuration changes. This polling can be performed usingsecure shell (SSH) or other protocols. Authentication of the changemonitoring service 114 may be handled by a CIOS system account andauthorization may be handled by SCVMS 104.

In some examples, the engineer 108 can use the view/plan/approve service112 to do one or more of the following operations. The engineer 108 canplan and/or approve by calling CIOS Central 102 to generate and approveplans. The engineer 108 can view by calling CIOS Central 102 to view thestatus of ongoing CIOS activity world-wide. Additionally, the engineer108 can CIOS Central 102 to view a replica of the state of CIOS-managedresources world-wide. These API calls (or the like) can be performed viathe HTTPS protocol or similar protocols. Additionally, relevant ACLs canbe controlled by LAN 124, and both authentication and authorization canbe handled by the reservation service. In some examples, theview/plan/approve service 112 can request planning and push planapproval to all regions of CIOS Regional 120 (e.g., using HTTPS or thelike). Relevant ACLs can be controlled using a security list managed bythe wide area network (WAN) gateway 126. Authentication can be handledby mutual transport layer security and authorization can be handled byvarious identity policies. Further, the state ingester service 116 canwatch CIOS Regional 120 for job status or state changes, so that CIOScan provide a central view of them upon request (e.g., also using HTTPSor the like). ACLSs for this can also be handled by the WAN gateway 126,and both authentication and authorization can be handled by mutualtransport layer security services.

FIG. 2 depicts an architecture 200 for illustrating techniques forimplementing at least CIOS Regional 202. In some examples, CIOS Regional202 is where much of the work of declarative provisioning and planning,as well as approved release application can occur. In some instances,each instance of CIOS Regional 202 may have a regional fronted that canhandle operations at the level of “Execution Targets.” It can beconfigured to perform the following:

-   -   Handling all CIOS Authentication for incoming operations from        CIOS Central 102.    -   Enforcing a rule that only one “execution” (plan/import        resources/apply plan) can be ongoing for a given Execution        target at a time.    -   Managing binary artifact storage for declarative provisioning        artifacts used for input and output during declarative        infrastructure provisioning execution. Examples of input are        declarative infrastructure provisioning configuration files and        an input state file. Typical output is a final state file.    -   Requesting work from and polls for results from the CIOS        Executor for any given execution.

In some instances, the CIOS Frontend may be dependent on a CIOSExecutor, which can handle the actual execution. The CIOS Executor, insome examples, operates at the level of “Execution,” and it can:

-   -   Track a pool of available Worker nodes    -   Query incoming job requests, and assigns them to eligible        workers as available    -   Track worker status and Execution updates for reporting to        clients    -   Detect dead nodes via a leasing protocol, and can fail tasks        assigned to dead nodes, depending on task status.    -   Provide facilities to cancel/kill/pause/resume Executions, and        can map those onto facilities to pass        cancellation/kill/resumption info on to Worker nodes.

In some instances, the CIOS Executor can depend on CIOS Workers, whichcan assign tasks for execution to Workers, and provide a facility forWorkers to update job progress. The worker service operates at thegranularity of “Task.” Each worker is an agent executing Tasks assignedto that worker and reporting Task status and output. Each worker can:

-   -   Poll Executor Worker APIs for assigned work items, and take        action to make the assign state match its local state:        -   start containers for polls task items that do not exist            locally        -   kill containers for locally running containers that have no            corresponding assigned task item    -   Report status for jobs    -   Stage input and output for job container execution    -   Launch and monitor declarative infrastructure provisioning        containers for doing the real work of a Release for an Execution        Target.

CIOS Workers may depend on CIOS Executor to poll work from and reportresults to the worker endpoint of the CIOS Executor. The Worker may relyon the Executor for all coordination. Additionally, the CIOS Workers mayalso depend on CIOS Regional 202, where the Worker services reads inputfrom and writes output to one or more APIs that are asscloudinfrastructure serviceated with the Regional Frontend service. Examplesof input are configuration and starting state files and import mappings.Examples of output are declarative provisioning process, outputdeclarative provisioning state files, and import result states.

In some examples, CIOS Regional 202 can be a regional service formanaging regional instances/deployments of CIOS. CIOS Regional 202covers responsibility for authoritatively storing and managing plans andstat that pertains to a particular region. A Regional DB 204 may be aCIOS DB for the state and plans in the particular region. This is theauthoritative copy of the region's subset of the Central DB 118 ofFIG. 1. Scheduler 206 can be responsible for managing worker fleetcapacity, assigning tasks to workers, and keeping track of task state.In some instances, Task DB 208 is another CIOS DB for task state. Datain this DB is mostly for operational purposes. Additionally, Worker 210can be a fleet of java virtual machines (JVMs) that manage declarativeprovisioning images. These receive instructions from the Scheduler 206and communicate results to both the Scheduler 206 and CIOS Regional 202.A CIOS container 212 can run declarative provisioning actions in its ownprivate docker 214 container. This container does not need to containsecrets. Additionally, in some examples, a signing proxy 216 can beconfigured to prevent secret exfiltration via a declarative provisioningtool, in order to avoid putting secrets in the declarative provisioningImage. Instead, CIOS can perform request signing or initiate a mutualtransport layer security (mTLS) service in a proxy. This also makes iteasier to use FIPS-compliant crypto libraries.

In some examples, CIOS Central 102 can call CIOS Regional 202 to createplans, push approvals, watch job status (service principal), and extractdeclarative provisioner state (service principal). An ingress proxy 218can be configured as the ACL and various identity policies may be usedfor both authentication and authorization. In some instances, CIOSRegional 202 may run a declarative provisional by asking the scheduler206 to do so. Worker 210 can ask Scheduler 206 what it should berunning, and can report status to Scheduler 206 when done. In somecases, mTLS may handle both authentication and authorization for CIOSRegional 202 and Worker 210. Additionally, when Worker 210 needs to runa declarative provisioner, it does so in docker containers byinteracting with the local docker 214. Authentication for this stage maybe handled by a local unix socket. A docker protocol may be used forthis last step; however, HTTPS may be utilized for the previous ones.

In some examples, the CIOS container 212 enables a declarativeprovisioner to interact (via API) with the signing proxy 216, while thedeclarative provisioner thinks it's calling various CIOS services. Thesigning proxy 216 listens on one ephemeral port per calling instance ofdeclarative provisioner, known only to that declarative provisioner. Thesigning proxy 216 can initiate requests signatures or mTLS, and can passthe declarative provisioner's calls through to other CIOS serviceswithin the service enclave. In some instances, the signing proxy 216 canalso communicate with one or more public CIOS services 220. For example,the Signing Proxy 216 will use the internal endpoint of public serviceswhere possible. For services with no internal endpoint, it must use theegress proxy 222 to reach the external endpoint. This use of the signingproxy 216 may not be for cross-region communication; for example, anegress proxy whitelist in each region may only be for that region'spublic IP ranges. In some examples, Worker 210 may then persist stateand logs from a declarative provisioner in CIOS Regional 202 so thatthey can be exfiltrated to CIOS Central 102.

Using CIOS, there are a few phases of a representative customerexperience: onboarding, pre-release, world-wide release, and tacticalrelease. For the pre-release phase, the below is an example of whathappens between a new artifact being built and releasing artifacts torelease one (e.g., R1). This should replace some or most of currentchange management processes. As relevant artifacts are built, CIOS canautomatically generate releases using “the latest version of everythingin the flock.” A release is a specific version of the flock config withspecific inputs (e.g. artifact versions, realm, region, and ad). Arelease contains one roll-forward plan per region and metadatadescribing region ordering. Each regional plan is the set of operationsa declarative provisioner would take to realize the flock configurationin that region. Teams with pre-release environments can use CIOS toautomatically release and test software in said environments. Teams canconfigure CIOS to automatically test the roll-back plan. Teams will beable to inspect and approve releases through the CIOS UI. Teams canapprove some but not all of the regional plans within a release. If “thelatest version of everything” yielded no suitable plans, teams can askCIOS to generate a plan for cherry-picked artifact versions.

For the world-wide release phase, the below is an example of how a teamexecutes tomorrow's version of today's “normal CM.” Once a release isapproved, CIOS pushes each approved regional plan to the respectiveregion. CIOS acts independently within each region to apply approvedplans. CIOS will only perform the set of actions explicitly described inthat region's plan. Instead of “thinking independently,” it will fail.CIOS UI shows teams the progress of the execution. CIOS UI prompts teamswhen manual approvals are required. If execution fails because of anoutage in CIOS or in a downstream service, CIOS can notify the team andcan prompt them for next steps (e.g., abort, retry). CIOS does performretries, but some downstream system outages will exceed its willingnessto retry. If execution fails because of service health degradation or atest failure, CIOS will assist teams with rolling the flock back to itsstarting state. CIOS will notify (e.g., page) teams when it initiatesautomatic rollback. Teams must approve the roll-back plan, then CIOSwill execute it.

For the tactical release phase, the below is an example of how a teamcan execute tomorrow's version of an “emergent CM.” When generating aplan, teams may ask CIOS to target the plan at specific resources inseveral ways: topologically (e.g., realm, region, AD, etc.), by resourcetype (e.g., “only metrics configs” or “only deployment orchestrationservice deployments”, etc.), or combinations of the above (e.g., in adisjunctive manner). Teams approve tactical releases just likeworld-wide releases. CIOS orchestrates them similarly. If a team needsto deploy a tactical release while there is an active a world-widerelease, CIOS will stop executing the world-wide release in the targetedregions, then start executing the tactical release.

In some examples, a declarative provisioner's state (e.g., traditionallya file) is an authoritative record of the set of resources managed bythe declarative provisioner. It contains the mapping between the logicalidentifier of each resource from config and the actual identifier of theresource. When the declarative provisioner is creating a resource,certain kinds of failure can prevent the actual identifier from beingrecorded in the state. When this happens, the actual identifier is lostto the declarative provisioner. These can be called “orphanedresources.”

For most resources, orphans represent waste—the declarative provisionerlaunched (for example) an instance that it forgot about, but will launchanother instance instead the next time it is run. For resources withuniqueness constraints or client-supplied identifiers, orphans preventthe declarative provisioner from making forward progress. For example,if the declarative provisioner creates a user ‘nglass’ and a failureorphans it, the next run of the declarative provisioner will attempt tocreate ‘nglass’ and fail because a user with that username alreadyexists. In some cases, orphans are only a problem when adding newresources to the state. In some instances, the declarative provisioner'srefresh behavior may naturally recover from failures to record updatesand deletions.

CIOS needs to be robust in the event of downstream service outages oroutages of CIOS itself. Because CIOS can leverage a declarativeprovisioner to apply changes, this means there should be robustnessaround running the declarative provisioner and maintaining thedeclarative provisioner state. The declarative provisioner providersperform ‘small scale’ retries—enough to avoid outages lasting for smallnumbers of minutes. For example, a cloud provider will retry for up to30 minutes. Downstream system outages lasting longer than 30 minuteswill cause the declarative provisioner to fail. When the declarativeprovisioner fails, it records all changes it successfully made in thestate, then exits. To retry, CIOS must re-execute the declarativeprovisioner. Re-executing the declarative provisioner also allows CIOSto retry in the event of a failure in CIOS itself. In some instances,CIOS can run the following operations in a loop:

-   -   Refresh—the declarative provisioner calls GET APIs to retrieve a        fresh snapshot of every resource described in its state.    -   Plan—the declarative provisioner generates a plan (a concrete        set of API calls) that will realize the desired state, given the        recently-refreshed current state.    -   Apply—the declarative provisioner executes the set of steps in        the plan.

CIOS may always run all three of these steps when executing thedeclarative provisioner. The refresh operation helps recover from anyupdates or deletions that weren't recorded. CIOS inspects the result ofthe plan operation and compares it to the approved release plan. If thenewly generated plan contains operations that were not in the approvedrelease plan, CIOS may fail and may notify the service team.

FIG. 3 depicts a directed acyclic graph (DAG) 300 for illustrating anexample flock 302. The progression of code/config from check-in toproduction, for a single flock config in CIOS, can be described all theway from the first testing deployment to the last prod deployment.Internally, CIOS calls each element in the progression an ExecutionTarget (ET)—this is all over our internal APIs, but does not leak out into the flock config. CIOS executes ETs based on the DAG 200 defined inthe flock config. Each ET (e.g., ET-1, ET-2, ET-3, ET-4, ET-5, ET-6, andET-7) is, roughly, one copy of the service described by the flockconfig.

FIG. 4 depicts a DAG 400 for illustrating and example flock 402. In theflock config, CIOS is very opinionated about how teams express thisprogression—they must model it using cloud infrastructure tenancies andregions. Teams should not model progression using realms. CIOS allowsteams to use many tenancies within a realm and many regions within atenancy. However, CIOS does not allow teams to use the same region twicewithin a tenancy (though they may use the same region twice within arealm—in different tenancies). DAG 400 illustrates a version of DAG 300from FIG. 3, expressed with tenancies and regions. This example is foran overlay service, where pre-prod ETs are in a prod region. A serviceenclave service would have the unstable and stable tenancies in releaseone. In DAG 400, IAD is a regional airport code for Dulles airport inWashington, D.C., YYZ is a regional airport code for Toronto, Ontario,PHX, LHR, and FRA, are regional airport codes for Phoenix, London, andFrankfurt, respectively, and LUF and LFI are for two different air forcebases.

In one embodiments, CIOS and/or other techniques described herein are animprovement on each of Terraform (a declarative provisioning tool),Tanden (a code generation tool), and the Oracle Deployment Orchestrator(ODO). Additionally, in some examples, CIOS and/or other techniquesdescribed herein can be implemented using at least portions of theTerraform, Tanden, and ODO tools.

In some examples, a safety plan may be generated for safely handlingdrift. Configuration files can include information that instruct CIOShow to make changes to a region (e.g., a geographic region where a cloudinfrastructure is to be (or already has been) set up). CIOS is capableof validating that what a client has reviewed as the change set (e.g.,the delta between the current state of the cloud infrastructure and theexpected new state after the change) is actually modified in the region.When a client interacts with CIOS to cause a world-wide plan, a safetyplan identifies what changes are expected to be made by CIOS based onthe world now (e.g., current state) to get to the world that wasdescribed in the configuration file (e.g., the target state). Asdescribed herein “the world” may refer to the expected state of a cloudinfrastructure including all the settings and configurations of thecloud setup. In some instances, drift is the idea that between the timea plan is generated, and the when deployment of the region begins, oneor more device configurations/settings may have changed (e.g., a virtualmachine may have gone down or the like). That change is the drift. CIOScan make the safety plan and ship it around the world to various regions(e.g., transmitting to various different CIOS regionals). Any time CIOSis about to implement a change, the planning task can be repeated. Forexample, the current state can be expected, and can be compared with thetarget state, and a diff (e.g., delta, difference, etc.) between the twocan be generated. If that diff is a subset of the safety plan, then nodrift has occurred, and the safety plan can still be implemented.Otherwise, a problem with the safety plan has been detected, and achange needs to be made prior to deployment. Additionally, in someexamples, CIOS can compare different safety plans (e.g., to handle phasechanges). For example, for a deployment to phase (e.g., deployingresources to a first phase prior to other phases), the safety plan maybe reviewed and approved, and thus the deployment may execute. Then,later, for a deployment of phase 2, a new safety plan can be generatedand compared to the first safety plan. If the new safety plan is asubset of the first safety plan, then the new safety plan can beautomatically approved without even sending anything to the client thatgenerated the configuration files. Alternatively, if there is somethingnovel in the new safety plan (e.g., something that doesn't exist in thefirst safety plan), then that novel aspect can be presented to a user(e.g., the client) via a user interface (UI). The user can then approveor reject the novel aspect (e.g., enabling or disallowing the deploymentchange to occur).

FIG. 5 is a block diagram 500 of a CIOS that can generate and use asafety plan, according to at least one embodiment. In some examples, thesafety plan may be a set of operations that have been approved by a userand that may be executed by CIOS. The block diagram 500 illustrates anexample architecture of CIOS that can include a central control plane502 and a region data plane 504. The central control plane 502 caninclude CIOS central 506 (e.g., similar to CIOS Central 102 of FIG. 1)that can include a control plane 508, a change management module 510, aview/plan/approve module 512, and a state ingester 514. The controlplane 508 and the view/plan/approve module 512 may be communicativelycoupled to a local area network (LAN) gateway 516 that a user 518 canuse to communicate with CIOS central 506. The view/plan/approve module512 and the state ingester 514 can be communicatively coupled to a widearea network (WAN) 520 (e.g. the Internet) that can be communicativelycoupled to CIOS regional 522 (e.g., similar to CIOS Regional 120 of FIG.1 or CIOS Regional 202 of FIG. 2) that is contained in the region dataplane 504.

CIOS regional 522 can be communicatively coupled to a scheduler node 524and a worker node 526. The worker 526 can be communicatively coupled tothe scheduler 524 that can be communicatively coupled to a task database(DB) 528. The worker 526 can be communicatively coupled to a docker 530that can include a CIOS container 532. The CIOS container 532 may becommunicatively coupled to a signing proxy 534 that can becommunicatively coupled to cloud services 536.

CIOS regional 522 may receive tasks from CIOS central 506 and maytransmit tasks to the scheduler 524. Tasks may include executing CRUDoperations or any other suitable task for deploying infrastructureresources in the region at execution target(s). The scheduler 524 canrecord the tasks in the task DB 528 and may transmit the tasks to theworker 526 that may be included in a worker fleet. The worker fleet caninclude many workers 526, and the scheduler 524 may choose the worker526 with the least amount of work or most amount of available computingresources to which to assign a task. The scheduler 524 may assign onetask to the worker 526 at one time. The worker 526 may execute the task,and in executing the task, the worker may make a call to CIOS container532 that is included in the docker 530. CIOS container 532 may executetasks that include infrastructure provisioning and/or deploymentinstructions (e.g., Terraform instructions). The instructions may directan API call to cloud services 536, which may include services availableto the region, that may not be available via a public network (e.g. theInternet). To make the API call to cloud services 536, CIOS container532 may transmit a request to make the API call to the signing proxy 534that can determine if the request is valid. In response to determiningthe request is valid, the signing proxy 534 may make the API call tocloud services 536.

In some examples, the user 518 may create a configuration file that mayinclude operations to execute in the region data plane 504. The user 518can transmit the configuration file to CIOS central 506, which may be acomputing device contained in the central control plane 502, via the LANgateway 516. The configuration file can be received by CIOS central 506at the control plane 508 or at the view/plan/approve module 512. Thechange management module 510 may compile the configuration file into aregion-agnostic (RA) configuration file that can be used at the regiondata plane 504. The view/plan/approve module 512 or the state ingester514 may transmit the RA configuration file to CIOS regional 522, whichmay be a computing device contained in the region data plane 504, viathe WAN gateway 520.

CIOS regional 522 can receive the RA configuration file from CIOScentral 506, and CIOS regional 522 can transmit the RA configurationfile to the scheduler 524 that may create a task and transmit the taskto the task DB 528. The task may include compiling a set of operationsto be executed at an execution target and may include comparing acurrent state of resources at the execution target to a desired state ofresources at the execution target. The task can be transmitted to theworker 526 that may execute the task. In executing the task, the worker526 may help create a safety plan, which is a set of approvedoperations. The operations may include deploying resources at theexecution target or any other suitable operations to execute at theexecution target. The worker 526 may transmit the safety plan to CIOSregional 522 that can transmit the safety plan to CIOS central 506 viathe WAN gateway 520.

CIOS central 506 can receive the safety plan from CIOS regional 522 andcan compare the set of changes contained in the safety plan tooperations at the execution target. The change management module 510 mayexecute this comparison and may make one of two determinations: that theoperations are a subset of the set of changes in the safety plan or thatthe operations are not a subset of the set of changes in the safetyplan. While only these two determinations are described in detail, otherdeterminations may be made (e.g., what percent difference there isbetween the set of changes and the safety plan, or the like). Inresponse to determining that the operations are a subset of the set ofchanges contained in the safety plan, the operations may be executed,which may include deploying resources at the execution target. Inresponse to determining that the operations are not a subset of the setof changes contained in the safety plan, a notification can be sent tothe user 518. The notification can be transmitted to the user 518 viathe LAN gateway 516 and may include information alerting the user 518that drift may have occurred or that operations that may be scheduled tobe executed at the execution target may not be contained in the safetyplan. In response to viewing the notification, the user 518 may approveor deny operations not contained in the safety plan. If the user 518approves the operations, the operations are executed and resources maybe deployed at the execution target. If the user 518 denies theoperations, the operations may not be executed, and the user 518 maydecide to create a new configuration file or may decide to abandon theoperations.

In other examples, the user 518 can create a set of configuration filesthat can include a desired state of resources for a set of executiontargets at a set of regions. The configuration files can be transmittedto CIOS central 506 that can compile the configuration files into a setof RA configuration files that includes one RA configuration file foreach region. The RA configuration files can be transmitted to therespective regions via the WAN gateway 520 and can be received by CIOSregional 522 that is contained in the respective region.

In the respective region, CIOS regional 522 can receive the respectiveRA configuration file from CIOS central 506, and CIOS regional 522 cantransmit the respective RA configuration file to the scheduler 524 thatmay create a task and transmit the task to the task DB 528. The task mayinclude compiling a set of operations to be executed at an executiontarget in the respective region and may include comparing a currentstate of resources at the execution target to a desired state ofresources at the execution target. The task can be transmitted to theworker 526 that may execute the task. In executing the task, the worker526 may help create a safety plan, which is a set of approvedoperations. The operations may include deploying resources at theexecution target or any other suitable operations to execute at theexecution target. The worker 526 may transmit the safety plan to CIOSregional 522 that can transmit the safety plan to CIOS central 506 viathe WAN gateway 520.

CIOS central 506 may receive a set of safety plans from the regions andmay compile the safety plans into a master safety plan (e.g., a safetyplan of safety plans), also described as the compiled safety plan. Eachsafety plan contained in the compiled safety plan may include similarchanges. Differences in changes between safety plans contained in thecompiled safety plan may indicate that drift has occurred in at leastone region. CIOS central 506 may compare changes contained in eachsafety plan contained in the compiled safety plan to operations at theexecution targets contained in the respective regions. The changemanagement module 510 may execute this comparison and may make one oftwo determinations: that the operations are a subset of the set ofchanges in the compiled safety plan or that the operations are not asubset of the set of changes in the compiled safety plan. In response todetermining that the operations are a subset of the set of changescontained in the compiled safety plan, the operations may be executed,which may include deploying resources at the execution targets containedin the respective regions. In response to determining that theoperations are not a subset of the set of changes contained in thecompiled safety plan, a notification can be sent to the user 518. Thenotification can be transmitted to the user 518 via the LAN gateway 516and may include information alerting the user 518 that drift may haveoccurred in at least one region or that operations that may be scheduledto be executed in at least one execution target may not be contained inthe compiled safety plan. In response to viewing the notification, theuser 518 may approve or deny operations not contained in the safetyplan. If the user 518 approves the operations, the operations areexecuted and resources may be deployed at the execution targetscontained in the respective regions. If the user 518 denies theoperations, the operations may not be executed, and the user 518 maydecide to create a new configuration file or may decide to abandon theoperations.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate example flow diagrams showing processes 600 and700 for implementing techniques of CIOS, according to certainembodiments of the present disclosure. These processes are illustratedas logical flow diagrams, each operation of which can be implemented inhardware, computer instructions, or a combination thereof. In thecontext of computer instructions, the operations may representcomputer-executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readablestorage media that, when executed by one or more processors, perform therecited operations. Generally, computer-executable instructions includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures and the likethat perform particular functions or implement particular data types.The order in which the operations are described is not intended to beconstrued as a limitation, and any number of the described operationscan be combined in any order and/or in parallel to implement theprocess.

Additionally, the processes 600 and 700 may be performed under thecontrol of one or more computing devices or computer systems configuredwith executable instructions and may be implemented as code (e.g.,executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or moreapplications) executing collectively on one or more processors, byhardware, or combinations thereof. As noted above, the code may bestored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the formof a computer program including a plurality of instructions executableby one or more processors. In some embodiments, the processes 600 and700 may be performed by a plurality of processors in parallel. Thecomputer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart for describing a process 600 for using a safetyplan in a cloud infrastructure orchestration service, according to atleast one embodiment. The process 600 may begin at block 602, where CIOScentral (e.g. CIOS central 506 of FIG. 5) receives a safety plan fromCIOS regional (e.g. CIOS regional 522 of FIG. 5) of a region containingan execution target. The safety plan may include a list of resources andoperations based on a deployment configuration file. The operations mayinclude instructions to deploy the resources at the execution target. Insome examples, CIOS central may receive a set of safety plans, from aset of CIOS regionals, corresponding to a set of regions. The safetyplans may be compiled by CIOS central into a compiled safety plan thatmay include resources and operations based on deployment configurationfiles corresponding to execution targets, each of the execution targetscontained in different regions.

At block 604, CIOS central prepares to execute at least one operationcorresponding to at least one resource contained in the deploymentconfiguration file. In response to receiving the safety plan from CIOSregional, CIOS central may prepare to execute at least one operation inat least one execution target, for example by compiling a local planthat may include the at least one operation. The operation may involvedeploying at least one resource at the execution target. In someexamples, CIOS central may prepare to execute a set of operationscorresponding to a set of resources contained in a set of deploymentconfiguration files. In this example, CIOS central may receive a set ofsafety plans, from a set of CIOS regionals, corresponding to a set ofregions.

At block 606, CIOS central compares the operation to the safety plan. Achange management module (e.g. the change management module 510 of FIG.5) that can be contained in CIOS central may execute the comparison. Thecomparison may involve determining if the operation is a subset of thesafety plan. The operation may be considered a subset of the safety planif the safety plan includes the operation. In some examples, theoperation may not change the current state of the execution target. Inthis case, CIOS central may not execute the operation, but the operationmay be considered a subset of the safety plan.

At block 608, the operation is executed. In response to the changemanagement module determining that the operation is a subset of thesafety plan, CIOS central may transmit a command to execute theoperation. The command may be transmitted by CIOS central to CIOSregional in the respective region and may involve deploying resources,that are contained in the deployment configuration file, at theexecution target. In an example in which resources are desired to bedeployed at more than one execution target, more than one safety planmay be received by CIOS central. In this case, CIOS central may prepareto execute the operations, and the change management module may comparethe operations to the safety plans to determine if the operations are asubset of the safety plans. In response to the change management moduledetermining that the operations are a subset of the safety plans, CIOScentral may transmit a command to each region to execute the operations.The command may be transmitted by CIOS central to CIOS regional in eachregion and may involve deploying resources, that are contained in thedeployment configuration file, at each execution target.

At block 610, the operation is not performed, and the deployment ishalted. In response to the change management module determining that theoperation is not a subset of the safety plan, CIOS central may nottransmit a command to execute the operation, and instead, CIOS centralmay halt the deployment. In the case in which resources are desired tobe deployed at more than one execution target, more than one safety planmay be received by CIOS central. In this case, CIOS central may prepareto execute the operations, and the change management module may comparethe operations to the safety plans to determine if the operations are asubset of the safety plans. In response to the change management moduledetermining that the operations are not a subset of the safety plans,CIOS central may not transmit a command to execute the operations.Instead, CIOS central may halt the deployment. In other examples, CIOScentral may halt operations that are not a subset of the safety plansand may transmit a command to execute operations that are a subset ofthe safety plans.

At block 612, CIOS central transmits a notification to the user (e.g.the user 518 of FIG. 5) that the deployment is not in compliance withthe safety plan. In response to determining that the operation is not asubset of the safety plan (as done at block 610), CIOS central maycreate and transmit a notification to the user that the deployment is nolonger in compliance with the safety plan. The notification may presentthe user with an option to choose to continue with the deployment eventhough the operation is not a subset of the safety plan. The user maychoose to continue the deployment or may choose to abandon thedeployment. If the user chooses to abandon the deployment, the user maycreate another configuration file to attempt a different deployment. Inthe case in which resources are desired to be deployed at more than oneexecution target, the notification transmitted to the user may includedeployments that are not in compliance with the safety plans. CIOScentral may transmit a command to execute the operations that have beendetermined to be a subset of the operations.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for describing a process 700 for generating asafety plan in a cloud infrastructure orchestration service, accordingto at least one embodiment. At block 702, CIOS regional (e.g. CIOSregional 522 of FIG. 5), included in a region, receives a configurationfile from CIOS central (e.g. CIOS central 506 of FIG. 5) for deployinginfrastructure resources. The configuration file may include operationsthat include instructions to deploy resources at an execution targetincluded in the region.

At block 704, CIOS regional identifies a new current state of cloudinfrastructure in the region. The configuration file may define adesired state of cloud infrastructure in the region, and in response toreceiving the configuration file, CIOS regional may identify the currentstate of resources in the region. In some example, the current state maybe similar to or identical to the desired state. In other examples, thecurrent state may not include any resources, and the desired state mayinclude most resources desired to be deployed at the execution target.

At block 706, CIOS regional generates a safety plan for deployinginfrastructure resources based on a comparison between the current stateand the desired state. The safety plan may include operations that maybe executed at the execution target. The operations may involvedeploying infrastructure resources at the execution target. In someexamples in which the current state and the desired state are similar oridentical, the safety plan that is compiled by CIOS regional may beempty or may not include any operations.

At block 708, CIOS regional transmits the safety plan for deployinginfrastructure resources to CIOS central. In response to creating thesafety plan, CIOS regional may transmit the safety plan to CIOS centralto execute a comparison. CIOS central may determine, as in block 608 ofprocess 600, that the operation to be executed at the execution targetis a subset of the safety plan. In response to this determination, CIOSregional may execute the operation and may deploy resources, included inthe configuration file, at the execution target.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example swim lane diagram showing a process 800for implementing techniques of CIOS, according to certain embodiments ofthe present disclosure. This process is illustrated as a logical flowdiagram, each operation of which can be implemented in hardware,computer instructions, or a combination thereof. In the context ofcomputer instructions, the operations may represent computer-executableinstructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media that,when executed by one or more processors, perform the recited operations.Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular data types. The order inwhich the operations are described is not intended to be construed as alimitation, and any number of the described operations can be combinedin any order and/or in parallel to implement the process.

Additionally, the process 800 may be performed under the control of oneor more computing devices or computer systems configured with executableinstructions and may be implemented as code (e.g., executableinstructions, one or more computer programs, or one or moreapplications) executing collectively on one or more processors, byhardware, or combinations thereof. As noted above, the code may bestored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the formof a computer program including a plurality of instructions executableby one or more processors. In some embodiments, the process 800 may beperformed by a plurality of processors in parallel. Thecomputer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory.

FIG. 8 is a swim lane diagram for describing a process 800 fordescribing how a safety plan is generated and used, according to atleast one embodiment. The diagram, as shown, includes three lanes: auser lane 802, a central lane 804, and a regional lane 806. The userlane 802 can include operations performed by, or commands given to acomputing system by, a user (e.g. the user 518 of FIG. 5). The centrallane 804 can include operations performed by CIOS central (e.g. CIOScentral 506 of FIG. 5). The regional lane 806 can include operationsperformed by CIOS regional (e.g. CIOS regional 522 of FIG. 5).

The process 800 may begin at block 808 in which the user creates aconfiguration file. The user may desire to deploy infrastructureresources at an execution target included in a region. In response tothis desire, the user can create a configuration file that can define adesired state of the execution target. At block 810, the user sends theconfiguration to CIOS central. In response to creating the configurationfile, the user may transmit the configuration file to CIOS central toinitiate a deployment.

At block 812, CIOS central receives the configuration file from theuser. In response to receiving the configuration file from the user,CIOS central may initiate the deployment. At block 814, CIOS centralcompiles a region-agnostic (RA) configuration file. In response toinitiating the deployment, CIOS central may compile the RAconfiguration, which may be a configuration file that may not depend onthe region in which the RA configuration file is sent. At block 816,CIOS central transmits the RA configuration file to CIOS regional. Inresponse to creating the RA configuration file, CIOS central maytransmit the RA configuration file to CIOS regional the region in whichresources are desired to be deployed.

At block 818, CIOS regional in the region in which resources are desiredto be deployed receives the RA configuration file. The RA configurationfile may include operations to execute for deploying infrastructureresources at the execution target. CIOS regional may transmit the RAconfiguration file to a worker node (e.g. the worker 526 of FIG. 5) thatmay execute a comparison. At block 820, CIOS regional creates a safetyplan based on a new current state. The worker can compare a new currentstate of infrastructure resources in the region with the desired stateof infrastructure resources as defined in the RA configuration file.CIOS regional can create the safety plan based at least in part on thecomparison executed by the worker. The safety plan may include approvedchanges to resources at the execution target.

At block 822, CIOS regional transmits the safety plan to CIOS central.In response to creating the safety plan, CIOS regional can transmit thesafety plan to CIOS central for determining if operations can bedeployed at the execution target. At block 824, CIOS central receivesthe safety plan from CIOS regional. In some examples in which resourcesare desired to be deployed in more than one region, CIOS central mayreceive more than one safety plan. In this case, CIOS central maycompile a safety plan of safety plans, herein after referred to as thecompiled safety plan. At block 826, CIOS central compares operations ofthe deployment to the safety plan. Operations of the deployment mayinclude instructions to deploy infrastructure resources at the executiontarget. In the case of the compiled safety plan, CIOS central maycompare operations to the compiled safety plan. At block 828, CIOScentral determines if the operations are a subset of the safety plan. Inthe case of the compiled safety plan, CIOS central may determine if theoperations are a subset of the compiled safety plan.

At block 830, in response to CIOS central determining that theoperations are a subset of the safety plan, CIOS central transmits acommand to CIOS regional to execute the operations. In this case,infrastructure resources may be deployed at the execution targets, andin the case of the compiled safety plan, resources may be deployed atmore than one execution target. In other examples, the operations maynot change the state of the execution target, and in this case, CIOScentral may take no action. At block 832, in response to CIOS centraldetermining that the operations are not a subset of the safety plan,CIOS central halts the deployment. In this case, CIOS central transmitsa notification to the user that may inform the user that drift hasoccurred and that the operations are not in compliance with the safetyplan. The notification may allow the user to allow the operations to beexecuted. If the user chooses to not allow the operations to beexecuted, the user may abandon the deployment or may create a newconfiguration file and transmit the new configuration file to CIOScentral to initiate a second deployment. In the case of the compiledsafety plan, CIOS central may transmit a notification to the user if theoperations are not a subset of the compiled safety plan.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a disconnected region 900, according to atleast one embodiment. The disconnected region 900 may be communicativelycoupled to a connected CIOS central 902 (e.g. CIOS central 506 of FIG.5). But, the connection between the disconnected region 900 and theconnected CIOS central 902 may not be in real-time and may be delayed.The disconnected region 900 can include a CIOS central 904 (e.g. CIOScentral 506 of FIG. 5), a scheduler node 906 (e.g. the scheduler 524 ofFIG. 5), a worker node 908 (e.g. the worker 526 of FIG. 5), a docker 910(e.g. the docker 530 of FIG. 5) that can include a CIOS container 912(e.g. the CIOS container 532 of FIG. 5), and a signing proxy 914 (e.g.the signing proxy 534 of FIG. 5). In some examples, the disconnectedregion 900 may be able to receive information/instructions from theconnected CIOS central 902; however, the connected CIOS central 902 maybe disconnected with respect to communications from the disconnectedregion 900. In other words, the communication may be one-way, and oncethe connected CIOS central 902 sends information in, it will be unableto confirm what operations the disconnected region 900 performs.

CIOS central 904 may receive tasks from the connected CIOS central 902and may transmit tasks to the scheduler 906. Tasks may include executingCRUD operations or any other suitable task for deploying infrastructureresources in the region at execution target(s). The scheduler 906 cantransmit the tasks to the worker 908 that may be included in a workerfleet. The worker fleet can include many workers 908, and the scheduler906 may choose the worker 908 with the least amount of work or mostamount of available computing resources to which to assign a task. Thescheduler 906 may assign one task to the worker 908 at one time. Theworker 908 may execute the task, and in executing the task, the workermay make a call to CIOS container 912 that is included in the docker910. CIOS container 912 may execute tasks that include Terraforminstructions. The instructions may direct an API call to cloud services916, which may include services available to the disconnected region900, that may not be available via a public network (e.g. the Internet).To make the API call to cloud services 916, CIOS container 912 maytransmit a request to make the API call to the signing proxy 914 thatcan determine if the request is valid. In response to determining therequest is valid, the signing proxy 914 may make the API call to cloudservices 916.

The connected CIOS central 902 may transmit a first safety plan and aconfiguration file to CIOS central 904 for a deployment ofinfrastructure resources at the execution target in the disconnectedregion 900. CIOS central 904 may transmit the configuration file to thescheduler 906 that may assign a task to the worker 908 to create asecond safety plan based on the configuration file. The first safetyplan may be created from a different configuration file that is similaror identical to the configuration file. In response to creating thesecond safety plan, the worker 908 may transmit the second safety planto CIOS central 904 that may compare the first safety plan to the secondsafety plan. CIOS central 904 may determine, in response to thecomparison, that the second safety plan is a subset of the first safetyplan. In this case, the second safety plan may be automatically approvedand infrastructure resources based on the configuration file may bedeployed at the execution target in the disconnected region 900. CIOScentral 904 may determine that the second safety plan is not a subset ofthe first safety plan. In this case, the deployment may be halted, and anotification can be transmitted to a user (e.g. the user 518 of FIG. 5)that informs the user that drift may have occurred and that thedeployment is not in compliance with the second safety plan.Additionally, in this example, if the second safety plan is not a subsetof the first safety plan, the connected CIOS central 902 can sendinstructions to the disconnected region 900 to halt any deployment thatwas originally planned.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example flow diagram showing a process 1000 forimplementing techniques of CIOS, according to certain embodiments of thepresent disclosure. This process is illustrated as a logical flowdiagram, each operation of which can be implemented in hardware,computer instructions, or a combination thereof. In the context ofcomputer instructions, the operations may represent computer-executableinstructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media that,when executed by one or more processors, perform the recited operations.Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular data types. The order inwhich the operations are described is not intended to be construed as alimitation, and any number of the described operations can be combinedin any order and/or in parallel to implement the process.

Additionally, the process 1000 may be performed under the control of oneor more computing devices or computer systems configured with executableinstructions and may be implemented as code (e.g., executableinstructions, one or more computer programs, or one or moreapplications) executing collectively on one or more processors, byhardware, or combinations thereof. As noted above, the code may bestored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the formof a computer program including a plurality of instructions executableby one or more processors. In some embodiments, the process 1000 may beperformed by a plurality of processors in parallel. Thecomputer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart for describing a process 1000 for using a safetyplan in a disconnected region, according to at least one embodiment. Atblock 1002, a configuration file is received for deployinginfrastructure resources to a first execution target and to a secondexecution target. The configuration file may include infrastructureresources that a user (e.g. the user 518 of FIG. 5) may desire to deployat the first execution target and at the second execution target. Insome examples, the configuration file may contain resources fordeployment at the first execution target, and a second configurationfile may include resources for deployment at the second executiontarget.

At block 1004, a first safety plan is generated based on theconfiguration file. The safety plan may include a list of approvedchanges that the user desires to execute at the first execution target.The first safety plan may be generated by CIOS central (e.g. CIOScentral 506 of FIG. 5). The first execution target may be included in aconnected region. The first safety plan may be created based on acomparison of a current state of resources at the first execution targetand a desired state of resources at the first execution target that maybe defined in the configuration file.

At block 1006, approval of the first safety plan is received. The usermay be given an option to approve the first safety plan, or the firstsafety plan may be automatically approved based on operations to beexecuted at the first execution target. In response to the approval inblock 1006, infrastructure resources may be deployed at the executiontarget based on the configuration file.

At block 1008, a second safety plan is generated for the secondexecution target based on the configuration file. The second safety plancan be generated by CIOS central that can be included in a disconnectedregion (e.g. the disconnected region 900 of FIG. 9). Also, the secondexecution target may be included in the disconnected region. In someexamples, the second safety plan may be created for the second executiontarget based on the second configuration file. In some examples, thefirst execution target and the second execution target may be similar oridentical, and the first safety plan and the second safety plan may besimilar or identical.

At block 1010, CIOS central determines whether the second safety plan isa subset of the first safety plan. CIOS central may be included in thedisconnected region and may compare the approved changes in the secondsafety plan to the approved changes in the first safety plan. CIOScentral may determine that the second safety plan is a subset of thefirst safety plan or that the second safety plan is not a subset of thefirst safety plan.

At block 1012, in accordance with CIOS central determining that thesecond safety plan is a subset of the first safety plan, the secondsafety plan is automatically approved based on the approval of the firstsafety plan. CIOS central may automatically approve the second safetyplan without input from the user in this case since the first safetyplan was already approved and since the first safety plan may have beenexecuted successfully. In some examples, the current state of the secondexecution target may be similar to or identical to the desired state ofthe second execution target as defined in the configuration file. Inthis example, the second safety plan may not include changes to executeat the second execution target. The second safety plan in this case maybe approved automatically by CIOS central since an empty second safetyplan is a subset of the first safety plan.

At block 1014, in accordance with CIOS central determining that thesecond safety plan is not a subset of the first safety plan, CIOScentral halts the deployment at the second execution target and notifiesthe user that the second safety plan is non-compliant. CIOS central mayhalt the deployment of infrastructure resources at the second executiontarget and may transmit a notification to the user informing the userthat drift may have occurred and that the second safety plan is not asubset of the first safety plan. The notification may be presented tothe user in a user interface that may present at least one differencebetween the first safety plan and the second safety plan. Thenotification may allow the user to (i) choose to deploy the resourcesdespite CIOS central determining that the second safety plan isnon-compliant (ii) abandon the deployment at the second executiontarget, (iii) submit a new configuration file for initiating a newdeployment at the second execution target, or a combination thereof.

At block 1016, in response to the approval of the second safety plan byCIOS central, CIOS central transmits the second safety plan to thesecond execution target for deploying infrastructure resources. CIOScentral and the second execution target may be included in thedisconnected region. The second safety plan may include instructions fordeploying resources at the second execution target. In some examples,the second safety plan may not include instructions for deployingresources since the current state of the second execution target may besimilar or identical to the desired state of the execution target asdefined by the configuration file. In this case, CIOS central may takeno action.

Illustrative Systems

FIGS. 11-13 illustrate aspects of example environments for implementingaspects of the present disclosure in accordance with variousembodiments. FIG. 11 depicts a simplified diagram of a distributedsystem 1100 for implementing an embodiment of the present disclosure. Inthe illustrated embodiment, the distributed system 1100 includes one ormore client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106, and 1108, which areconfigured to execute and operate a client application such as a webbrowser, proprietary client (e.g., Oracle Forms), or the like over oneor more network(s) 1110. The server 1112 may be communicatively coupledwith the remote client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106, and 1108 vianetwork 1110.

In various embodiments, the server 1112 may be adapted to run one ormore services or software applications such as services and applicationsthat provide identity management services. In certain embodiments, theserver 1112 may also provide other services or software applications caninclude non-virtual and virtual environments. In some embodiments, theseservices may be offered as web-based or cloud services or under aSoftware as a Service (SaaS) model to the users of the client computingdevices 1102, 1104, 1106, and/or 1108. Users operating the clientcomputing devices 1102, 1104, 1106, and/or 1108 may in turn utilize oneor more client applications to interact with the server 1112 to utilizethe services provided by these components.

In the configuration depicted in FIG. 11, the software components 1118,1120 and 1122 of system 1100 are shown as being implemented on theserver 1112. In other embodiments, one or more of the components of thesystem 1100 and/or the services provided by these components may also beimplemented by one or more of the client computing devices 1102, 1104,1106, and/or 1108. Users operating the client computing devices may thenutilize one or more client applications to use the services provided bythese components. These components may be implemented in hardware,firmware, software, or combinations thereof. It should be appreciatedthat various different system configurations are possible, which may bedifferent from distributed system 1100. The embodiment shown in FIG. 11is thus one example of a distributed system for implementing anembodiment system and is not intended to be limiting.

The client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106, and/or 1108 may includevarious types of computing systems. For example, client device mayinclude portable handheld devices (e.g., an iPhone®, cellular telephone,an iPad®, computing tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA)) orwearable devices (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounted display), runningsoftware such as Microsoft Windows Mobile®, and/or a variety of mobileoperating systems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 10,Palm OS, and the like. The devices may support various applications suchas various Internet-related apps, e-mail, short message service (SMS)applications, and may use various other communication protocols. Theclient computing devices may also include general purpose personalcomputers including, by way of example, personal computers and/or laptopcomputers running various versions of Microsoft Windows®, AppleMacintosh®, and/or Linux operating systems. The client computing devicescan be workstation computers running any of a variety ofcommercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems, includingwithout limitation the variety of GNU/Linux operating systems, such asfor example, Google Chrome OS. Client computing devices may also includeelectronic devices such as a thin-client computer, an Internet-enabledgaming system (e.g., a Microsoft Xbox gaming console with or without aKinect® gesture input device), and/or a personal messaging device,capable of communicating over the network(s) 1110.

Although distributed system 1100 in FIG. 11 is shown with four clientcomputing devices, any number of client computing devices may besupported. Other devices, such as devices with sensors, etc., mayinteract with the server 1112.

The network(s) 1110 in the distributed system 1100 may be any type ofnetwork familiar to those skilled in the art that can support datacommunications using any of a variety of available protocols, includingwithout limitation TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internetprotocol), SNA (systems network architecture), IPX (Internet packetexchange), AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, thenetwork(s) 1110 can be a local area network (LAN), networks based onEthernet, Token-Ring, a wide-area network, the Internet, a virtualnetwork, a virtual private network (VPN), an intranet, an extranet, apublic switched telephone network (PSTN), an infra-red network, awireless network (e.g., a network operating under any of the Instituteof Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) 1002.11 suite of protocols,Bluetooth®, and/or any other wireless protocol), and/or any combinationof these and/or other networks.

The server 1112 may be composed of one or more general purposecomputers, specialized server computers (including, by way of example,PC (personal computer) servers, UNIX® servers, mid-range servers,mainframe computers, rack-mounted servers, etc.), server farms, serverclusters, or any other appropriate arrangement and/or combination. Theserver 1112 can include one or more virtual machines running virtualoperating systems, or other computing architectures involvingvirtualization. One or more flexible pools of logical storage devicescan be virtualized to maintain virtual storage devices for the server.Virtual networks can be controlled by the server 1112 using softwaredefined networking. In various embodiments, the server 1112 may beadapted to run one or more services or software applications describedin the foregoing disclosure. For example, the server 1112 may correspondto a server for performing processing as described above according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

The server 1112 may run an operating system including any of thosediscussed above, as well as any commercially available server operatingsystem. Server 1112 may also run any of a variety of additional serverapplications and/or mid-tier applications, including HTTP (hypertexttransport protocol) servers, FTP (file transfer protocol) servers, CGI(common gateway interface) servers, JAVA® servers, database servers, andthe like. Example database servers include without limitation thosecommercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM(International Business Machines), and the like.

In some implementations, the server 1112 may include one or moreapplications to analyze and consolidate data feeds and/or event updatesreceived from users of the client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106,and 1108. As an example, data feeds and/or event updates may include,but are not limited to, Twitter® feeds, Facebook® updates or real-timeupdates received from one or more third party information sources andcontinuous data streams, which may include real-time events related tosensor data applications, financial tickers, network performancemeasuring tools (e.g., network monitoring and traffic managementapplications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile trafficmonitoring, and the like. The server 1112 may also include one or moreapplications to display the data feeds and/or real-time events via oneor more display devices of the client computing devices 1102, 1104,1106, and 1108.

The distributed system 1100 may also include one or more databases 1114and 1116. These databases may provide a mechanism for storinginformation such as user identity information, and other informationused by embodiments of the present disclosure. Databases 1114 and 1116may reside in a variety of locations. By way of example, one or more ofdatabases 1114 and 1116 may reside on a non-transitory storage mediumlocal to (and/or resident in) the server 1112. Alternatively, thedatabases 1114 and 1116 may be remote from the server 1112 and incommunication with the server 1112 via a network-based or dedicatedconnection. In one set of embodiments, the databases 1114 and 1116 mayreside in a storage-area network (SAN). Similarly, any necessary filesfor performing the functions attributed to the server 1112 may be storedlocally on the server 1112 and/or remotely, as appropriate. In one setof embodiments, the databases 1114 and 1116 may include relationaldatabases, such as databases provided by Oracle, that are adapted tostore, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example computer system 1200 that may be used toimplement an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments,computer system 1200 may be used to implement any of the various serversand computer systems described above. As shown in FIG. 12, computersystem 1200 includes various subsystems including a processing subsystem1204 that communicates with a number of peripheral subsystems via a bussubsystem 1202. These peripheral subsystems may include a processingacceleration unit 1206, an I/O subsystem 1208, a storage subsystem 1218and a communications subsystem 1224. Storage subsystem 1218 may includetangible computer-readable storage media 1222 and a system memory 1210.

Bus subsystem 1202 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 1200 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 1202 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple buses. Bus subsystem 1202 may be any of several types of busstructures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Forexample, such architectures may include an Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, EnhancedISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) localbus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which can beimplemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1standard, and the like.

Processing subsystem 1204 controls the operation of computer system 1200and may comprise one or more processing units 1232, 1234, etc. Aprocessing unit may include be one or more processors, including singlecore or multicore processors, one or more cores of processors, orcombinations thereof. In some embodiments, processing subsystem 1204 caninclude one or more special purpose co-processors such as graphicsprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), or the like. In someembodiments, some or all of the processing units of processing subsystem1204 can be implemented using customized circuits, such as applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), or field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs).

In some embodiments, the processing units in processing subsystem 1204can execute instructions stored in system memory 1210 or on computerreadable storage media 1222. In various embodiments, the processingunits can execute a variety of programs or code instructions and canmaintain multiple concurrently executing programs or processes. At anygiven time, some or all of the program code to be executed can beresident in system memory 1210 and/or on computer-readable storage media1210 including potentially on one or more storage devices. Throughsuitable programming, processing subsystem 1204 can provide variousfunctionalities described above for dynamically modifying documents(e.g., webpages) responsive to usage patterns.

In certain embodiments, a processing acceleration unit 1206 may beprovided for performing customized processing or for off-loading some ofthe processing performed by processing subsystem 1204 so as toaccelerate the overall processing performed by computer system 1200.

I/O subsystem 1208 may include devices and mechanisms for inputtinginformation to computer system 1200 and/or for outputting informationfrom or via computer system 1200. In general, use of the term “inputdevice” is intended to include all possible types of devices andmechanisms for inputting information to computer system 1200. Userinterface input devices may include, for example, a keyboard, pointingdevices such as a mouse or trackball, a touchpad or touch screenincorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel, a dial, abutton, a switch, a keypad, audio input devices with voice commandrecognition systems, microphones, and other types of input devices. Userinterface input devices may also include motion sensing and/or gesturerecognition devices such as the Microsoft Kinect® motion sensor thatenables users to control and interact with an input device, theMicrosoft Xbox® 360 game controller, devices that provide an interfacefor receiving input using gestures and spoken commands. User interfaceinput devices may also include eye gesture recognition devices such asthe Google Glass® blink detector that detects eye activity (e.g.,“blinking” while taking pictures and/or making a menu selection) fromusers and transforms the eye gestures as input into an input device(e.g., Google Glass®). Additionally, user interface input devices mayinclude voice recognition sensing devices that enable users to interactwith voice recognition systems (e.g., Siri® navigator), through voicecommands.

Other examples of user interface input devices include, withoutlimitation, three dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks,gamepads and graphic tablets, and audio/visual devices such as speakers,digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams,image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3Dprinters, laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices.Additionally, user interface input devices may include, for example,medical imaging input devices such as computed tomography, magneticresonance imaging, position emission tomography, medical ultrasonographydevices. User interface input devices may also include, for example,audio input devices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instrumentsand the like.

User interface output devices may include a display subsystem, indicatorlights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. Thedisplay subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat-panel device,such as that using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, aprojection device, a touch screen, and the like. In general, use of theterm “output device” is intended to include all possible types ofdevices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system1200 to a user or other computer. For example, user interface outputdevices may include, without limitation, a variety of display devicesthat visually convey text, graphics and audio/video information such asmonitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems,plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

Storage subsystem 1218 provides a repository or data store for storinginformation that is used by computer system 1200. Storage subsystem 1218provides a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium forstoring the basic programming and data constructs that provide thefunctionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules,instructions) that when executed by processing subsystem 1204 providethe functionality described above may be stored in storage subsystem1218. The software may be executed by one or more processing units ofprocessing subsystem 1204. Storage subsystem 1218 may also provide arepository for storing data used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

Storage subsystem 1218 may include one or more non-transitory memorydevices, including volatile and non-volatile memory devices. As shown inFIG. 12, storage subsystem 1218 includes a system memory 1210 and acomputer-readable storage media 1222. System memory 1210 may include anumber of memories including a volatile main random access memory (RAM)for storage of instructions and data during program execution and anon-volatile read only memory (ROM) or flash memory in which fixedinstructions are stored. In some implementations, a basic input/outputsystem (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transferinformation between elements within computer system 1200, such as duringstart-up, may be stored in the ROM. The RAM may contain data and/orprogram modules that are presently being operated and executed byprocessing subsystem 1204. In some implementations, system memory 1210may include multiple different types of memory, such as static randomaccess memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM).

By way of example, and not limitation, as depicted in FIG. 12, systemmemory 1210 may store application programs 1212, which may includeclient applications, Web browsers, mid-tier applications, relationaldatabase management systems (RDBMS), etc., program data 1214, and anoperating system 1216. By way of example, operating system 1216 mayinclude various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and/orLinux operating systems, a variety of commercially-available UNIX® orUNIX-like operating systems (including without limitation the variety ofGNU/Linux operating systems, the Google Chrome® OS, and the like) and/ormobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows® Phone, Android® OS,BlackBerry® 10 OS, and Palm® OS operating systems.

Computer-readable storage media 1222 may store programming and dataconstructs that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software(programs, code modules, instructions) that when executed by processingsubsystem 1204 a processor provide the functionality described above maybe stored in storage subsystem 1218. By way of example,computer-readable storage media 1222 may include non-volatile memorysuch as a hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive, an optical disk drivesuch as a CD ROM, DVD, a Blu-Ray® disk, or other optical media.Computer-readable storage media 1222 may include, but is not limited to,Zip® drives, flash memory cards, universal serial bus (USB) flashdrives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital video tape, andthe like. Computer-readable storage media 1222 may also include,solid-state drives (SSD) based on non-volatile memory such asflash-memory based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid state ROM, andthe like, SSDs based on volatile memory such as solid state RAM, dynamicRAM, static RAM, DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, andhybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM and flash memory based SSDs.Computer-readable media 1222 may provide storage of computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, and other data forcomputer system 1200.

In certain embodiments, storage subsystem 1200 may also include acomputer-readable storage media reader 1220 that can further beconnected to computer-readable storage media 1222. Together and,optionally, in combination with system memory 1210, computer-readablestorage media 1222 may comprehensively represent remote, local, fixed,and/or removable storage devices plus storage media for storingcomputer-readable information.

In certain embodiments, computer system 1200 may provide support forexecuting one or more virtual machines. Computer system 1200 may executea program such as a hypervisor for facilitating the configuring andmanaging of the virtual machines. Each virtual machine may be allocatedmemory, compute (e.g., processors, cores), I/O, and networkingresources. Each virtual machine may run its own operating system, whichmay be the same as or different from the operating systems executed byother virtual machines executed by computer system 1200. Accordingly,multiple operating systems may potentially be run concurrently bycomputer system 1200. Each virtual machine generally runs independentlyof the other virtual machines.

Communications subsystem 1224 provides an interface to other computersystems and networks. Communications subsystem 1224 serves as aninterface for receiving data from and transmitting data to other systemsfrom computer system 1200. For example, communications subsystem 1224may enable computer system 1200 to establish a communication channel toone or more client devices via the Internet for receiving and sendinginformation from and to the client devices. Additionally, communicationsubsystem 1224 may be used to communicate notifications of successfullogins or notifications to re-enter a password from the privilegedaccount manager to the requesting users.

Communication subsystem 1224 may support both wired and/or wirelesscommunication protocols. For example, in certain embodiments,communications subsystem 1224 may include radio frequency (RF)transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and/or data networks(e.g., using cellular telephone technology, advanced data networktechnology, such as 3G, 4G or EDGE (enhanced data rates for globalevolution), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 family standards, or other mobilecommunication technologies, or any combination thereof), globalpositioning system (GPS) receiver components, and/or other components.In some embodiments communications subsystem 1224 can provide wirednetwork connectivity (e.g., Ethernet) in addition to or instead of awireless interface.

Communication subsystem 1224 can receive and transmit data in variousforms. For example, in some embodiments, communications subsystem 1224may receive input communication in the form of structured and/orunstructured data feeds 1226, event streams 1228, event updates 1230,and the like. For example, communications subsystem 1224 may beconfigured to receive (or send) data feeds 1226 in real-time from usersof social media networks and/or other communication services such asTwitter® feeds, Facebook® updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary(RSS) feeds, and/or real-time updates from one or more third partyinformation sources.

In certain embodiments, communications subsystem 1224 may be configuredto receive data in the form of continuous data streams, which mayinclude event streams 1228 of real-time events and/or event updates1230, that may be continuous or unbounded in nature with no explicitend. Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include,for example, sensor data applications, financial tickers, networkperformance measuring tools (e.g. network monitoring and trafficmanagement applications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile trafficmonitoring, and the like.

Communications subsystem 1224 may also be configured to output thestructured and/or unstructured data feeds 1226, event streams 1228,event updates 1230, and the like to one or more databases that may be incommunication with one or more streaming data source computers coupledto computer system 1200.

Computer system 1200 can be one of various types, including a handheldportable device (e.g., an iPhone® cellular phone, an iPad® computingtablet, a PDA), a wearable device (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounteddisplay), a personal computer, a workstation, a mainframe, a kiosk, aserver rack, or any other data processing system.

Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, thedescription of computer system 1200 depicted in FIG. 12 is intended onlyas a specific example. Many other configurations having more or fewercomponents than the system depicted in FIG. 12 are possible. Based onthe disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skillin the art will appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement thevarious embodiments.

Systems depicted in some of the figures may be provided in variousconfigurations. In some embodiments, the systems may be configured as adistributed system where one or more components of the system aredistributed across one or more networks in one or more cloudinfrastructure systems.

A cloud infrastructure system is a collection of one or more servercomputing devices, network devices, and/or storage devices. Theseresources may be divided by cloud services providers and allotted to itscustomers in some manner. For example, a cloud services provider, suchas Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, Calif., may offer various typesof cloud services including but not limited to one or more servicesprovided under Software as a Service (SaaS) category, services providedunder Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, services provided underInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category, or other categories ofservices including hybrid services. Examples of SaaS services include,without limitation, capabilities to build and deliver a suite ofon-demand applications such as Oracle Fusion applications. SaaS servicesenable customers to utilize applications executing on the cloudinfrastructure system without the need for customers to purchasesoftware for the applications. Examples of PaaS services include withoutlimitation services that enable organizations (such as Oracle) toconsolidate existing applications on a shared, common architecture, aswell as the ability to build new applications that leverage the sharedservices provided by the platform such as Oracle Java Cloud Service(JCS), Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBCS), and others. IaaS servicesmay facilitate the management and control of the underlying computingresources, such as storage, networks, and other fundamental computingresources for customers utilizing services provided by the SaaS platformand the PaaS platform.

FIG. 13 is a simplified block diagram of one or more components of asystem environment 1300 by which services provided by one or morecomponents of an embodiment system may be offered as cloud services, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In theillustrated embodiment, system environment 1300 includes one or moreclient computing devices 1304, 1306, and 1308 that may be used by usersto interact with a cloud infrastructure system 1302 that provides cloudservices. The client computing devices may be configured to operate aclient application such as a web browser, a proprietary clientapplication (e.g., Oracle Forms), or some other application, which maybe used by a user of the client computing device to interact with cloudinfrastructure system 1302 to use services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1302.

It should be appreciated that cloud infrastructure system 1302 depictedin the figure may have other components than those depicted. Further,the embodiment shown in the figure is only one example of a cloudinfrastructure system that may incorporate an embodiment of thedisclosure. In some other embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1302may have more or fewer components than shown in the figure, may combinetwo or more components, or may have a different configuration orarrangement of components.

Client computing devices 1304, 1306, and 1308 may be devices similar tothose described above for 1102, 1104, 1106, and 1108.

Although example system environment 1300 is shown with three clientcomputing devices, any number of client computing devices may besupported. Other devices such as devices with sensors, etc. may interactwith cloud infrastructure system 1302.

Network(s) 1310 may facilitate communications and exchange of databetween clients 1304, 1306, and 1308 and cloud infrastructure system1302. Each network may be any type of network familiar to those skilledin the art that can support data communications using any of a varietyof commercially-available protocols, including those described above fornetwork(s) 1110.

Cloud infrastructure system 1302 may comprise one or more computersand/or servers that may include those described above for server 1112.

In certain embodiments, services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem may include a host of services that are made available to usersof the cloud infrastructure system on demand, such as online datastorage and backup solutions, Web-based e-mail services, hosted officesuites and document collaboration services, database processing, managedtechnical support services, and the like. Services provided by the cloudinfrastructure system can dynamically scale to meet the needs of itsusers. A specific instantiation of a service provided by cloudinfrastructure system is referred to herein as a “service instance.” Ingeneral, any service made available to a user via a communicationnetwork, such as the Internet, from a cloud service provider's system isreferred to as a “cloud service.” In a public cloud environment, serversand systems that make up the cloud service provider's system aredifferent from the customer's own on-premises servers and systems. Forexample, a cloud service provider's system may host an application, anda user may, via a communication network such as the Internet, on demand,order and use the application.

In some examples, a service in a computer network cloud infrastructuremay include protected computer network access to storage, a hosteddatabase, a hosted web server, a software application, or other serviceprovided by a cloud vendor to a user, or as otherwise known in the art.For example, a service can include password-protected access to remotestorage on the cloud through the Internet. As another example, a servicecan include a web service-based hosted relational database and ascript-language middleware engine for private use by a networkeddeveloper. As another example, a service can include access to an emailsoftware application hosted on a cloud vendor's web site.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1302 may include asuite of applications, middleware, and database service offerings thatare delivered to a customer in a self-service, subscription-based,elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. Anexample of such a cloud infrastructure system is the Oracle Public Cloudprovided by the present assignee.

In various embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1302 may be adaptedto automatically provision, manage and track a customer's subscriptionto services offered by cloud infrastructure system 1302. Cloudinfrastructure system 1302 may provide the cloud services via differentdeployment models. For example, services may be provided under a publiccloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 1302 is owned by anorganization selling cloud services (e.g., owned by Oracle) and theservices are made available to the general public or different industryenterprises. As another example, services may be provided under aprivate cloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 1302 isoperated solely for a single organization and may provide services forone or more entities within the organization. The cloud services mayalso be provided under a community cloud model in which cloudinfrastructure system 1302 and the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1302 are shared by several organizations in arelated community. The cloud services may also be provided under ahybrid cloud model, which is a combination of two or more differentmodels.

In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1302 may include one or more services provided under Software asa Service (SaaS) category, Platform as a Service (PaaS) category,Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category, or other categories ofservices including hybrid services. A customer, via a subscriptionorder, may order one or more services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1302. Cloud infrastructure system 1302 then performs processingto provide the services in the customer's subscription order.

In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1302 may include, without limitation, application services,platform services and infrastructure services. In some examples,application services may be provided by the cloud infrastructure systemvia a SaaS platform. The SaaS platform may be configured to providecloud services that fall under the SaaS category. For example, the SaaSplatform may provide capabilities to build and deliver a suite ofon-demand applications on an integrated development and deploymentplatform. The SaaS platform may manage and control the underlyingsoftware and infrastructure for providing the SaaS services. Byutilizing the services provided by the SaaS platform, customers canutilize applications executing on the cloud infrastructure system.Customers can acquire the application services without the need forcustomers to purchase separate licenses and support. Various differentSaaS services may be provided. Examples include, without limitation,services that provide solutions for sales performance management,enterprise integration, and business flexibility for largeorganizations.

In some embodiments, platform services may be provided by the cloudinfrastructure system via a PaaS platform. The PaaS platform may beconfigured to provide cloud services that fall under the PaaS category.Examples of platform services may include without limitation servicesthat enable organizations (such as Oracle) to consolidate existingapplications on a shared, common architecture, as well as the ability tobuild new applications that leverage the shared services provided by theplatform. The PaaS platform may manage and control the underlyingsoftware and infrastructure for providing the PaaS services. Customerscan acquire the PaaS services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem without the need for customers to purchase separate licenses andsupport. Examples of platform services include, without limitation,Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS), Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBCS),and others.

By utilizing the services provided by the PaaS platform, customers canemploy programming languages and tools supported by the cloudinfrastructure system and also control the deployed services. In someembodiments, platform services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem may include database cloud services, middleware cloud services(e.g., Oracle Fusion Middleware services), and Java cloud services. Inone embodiment, database cloud services may support shared servicedeployment models that enable organizations to pool database resourcesand offer customers a Database as a Service in the form of a databasecloud. Middleware cloud services may provide a platform for customers todevelop and deploy various business applications, and Java cloudservices may provide a platform for customers to deploy Javaapplications, in the cloud infrastructure system.

Various different infrastructure services may be provided by an IaaSplatform in the cloud infrastructure system. The infrastructure servicesfacilitate the management and control of the underlying computingresources, such as storage, networks, and other fundamental computingresources for customers utilizing services provided by the SaaS platformand the PaaS platform.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1302 may alsoinclude infrastructure resources 1330 for providing the resources usedto provide various services to customers of the cloud infrastructuresystem. In one embodiment, infrastructure resources 1330 may includepre-integrated and optimized combinations of hardware, such as servers,storage, and networking resources to execute the services provided bythe PaaS platform and the SaaS platform.

In some embodiments, resources in cloud infrastructure system 1302 maybe shared by multiple users and dynamically re-allocated per demand.Additionally, resources may be allocated to users in different timezones. For example, cloud infrastructure system 1330 may enable a firstset of users in a first time zone to utilize resources of the cloudinfrastructure system for a specified number of hours and then enablethe re-allocation of the same resources to another set of users locatedin a different time zone, thereby maximizing the utilization ofresources.

In certain embodiments, a number of internal shared services 1332 may beprovided that are shared by different components or modules of cloudinfrastructure system 1302 and by the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1302. These internal shared services may include,without limitation, a security and identity service, an integrationservice, an enterprise repository service, an enterprise managerservice, a virus scanning and white list service, a high availability,backup and recovery service, service for enabling cloud support, anemail service, a notification service, a file transfer service, and thelike.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1302 may providecomprehensive management of cloud services (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, and IaaSservices) in the cloud infrastructure system. In one embodiment, cloudmanagement functionality may include capabilities for provisioning,managing and tracking a customer's subscription received by cloudinfrastructure system 1302, and the like.

In one embodiment, as depicted in the figure, cloud managementfunctionality may be provided by one or more modules, such as an ordermanagement module 1320, an order orchestration module 1322, an orderprovisioning module 1324, an order management and monitoring module1326, and an identity management module 1328. These modules may includeor be provided using one or more computers and/or servers, which may begeneral purpose computers, specialized server computers, server farms,server clusters, or any other appropriate arrangement and/orcombination.

In example operation 1334, a customer using a client device, such asclient device 1304, 1306 or 1308, may interact with cloud infrastructuresystem 1302 by requesting one or more services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1302 and placing an order for a subscription forone or more services offered by cloud infrastructure system 1302. Incertain embodiments, the customer may access a cloud User Interface(UI), cloud UI 1312, cloud UI 1314 and/or cloud UI 1316 and place asubscription order via these UIs. The order information received bycloud infrastructure system 1302 in response to the customer placing anorder may include information identifying the customer and one or moreservices offered by the cloud infrastructure system 1302 that thecustomer intends to subscribe to.

After an order has been placed by the customer, the order information isreceived via the cloud UIs, 1312, 1314 and/or 1316.

At operation 1336, the order is stored in order database 1318. Orderdatabase 1318 can be one of several databases operated by cloudinfrastructure system 1318 and operated in conjunction with other systemelements.

At operation 1338, the order information is forwarded to an ordermanagement module 1320. In some instances, order management module 1320may be configured to perform billing and accounting functions related tothe order, such as verifying the order, and upon verification, bookingthe order.

At operation 1340, information regarding the order is communicated to anorder orchestration module 1322. Order orchestration module 1322 mayutilize the order information to orchestrate the provisioning ofservices and resources for the order placed by the customer. In someinstances, order orchestration module 1322 may orchestrate theprovisioning of resources to support the subscribed services using theservices of order provisioning module 1324.

In certain embodiments, order orchestration module 1322 enables themanagement of business processes associated with each order and appliesbusiness logic to determine whether an order should proceed toprovisioning. At operation 1342, upon receiving an order for a newsubscription, order orchestration module 1322 sends a request to orderprovisioning module 1324 to allocate resources and configure thoseresources needed to fulfill the subscription order. Order provisioningmodule 1324 enables the allocation of resources for the services orderedby the customer. Order provisioning module 1324 provides a level ofabstraction between the cloud services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1300 and the physical implementation layer that is used toprovision the resources for providing the requested services. Orderorchestration module 1322 may thus be isolated from implementationdetails, such as whether or not services and resources are actuallyprovisioned on the fly or pre-provisioned and only allocated/assignedupon request.

At operation 1344, once the services and resources are provisioned, anotification of the provided service may be sent to customers on clientdevices 1304, 1306 and/or 1308 by order provisioning module 1324 ofcloud infrastructure system 1302. At operation 1346, the customer'ssubscription order may be managed and tracked by an order management andmonitoring module 1326. In some instances, order management andmonitoring module 1326 may be configured to collect usage statistics forthe services in the subscription order, such as the amount of storageused, the amount data transferred, the number of users, and the amountof system up time and system down time.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1300 may include anidentity management module 1328. Identity management module 1328 may beconfigured to provide identity services, such as access management andauthorization services in cloud infrastructure system 1300. In someembodiments, identity management module 1328 may control informationabout customers who wish to utilize the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1302. Such information can include informationthat authenticates the identities of such customers and information thatdescribes which actions those customers are authorized to performrelative to various system resources (e.g., files, directories,applications, communication ports, memory segments, etc.) Identitymanagement module 1328 may also include the management of descriptiveinformation about each customer and about how and by whom thatdescriptive information can be accessed and modified.

Although specific embodiments of the disclosure have been described,various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, andequivalents are also encompassed within the scope of the disclosure.Embodiments of the present disclosure are not restricted to operationwithin certain specific data processing environments, but are free tooperate within a plurality of data processing environments.Additionally, although embodiments of the present disclosure have beendescribed using a particular series of transactions and steps, it shouldbe apparent to those skilled in the art that the scope of the presentdisclosure is not limited to the described series of transactions andsteps. Various features and aspects of the above-described embodimentsmay be used individually or jointly.

Further, while embodiments of the present disclosure have been describedusing a particular combination of hardware and software, it should berecognized that other combinations of hardware and software are alsowithin the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be implemented only in hardware, or only in software, orusing combinations thereof. The various processes described herein canbe implemented on the same processor or different processors in anycombination. Accordingly, where components or modules are described asbeing configured to perform certain operations, such configuration canbe accomplished, e.g., by designing electronic circuits to perform theoperation, by programming programmable electronic circuits (such asmicroprocessors) to perform the operation, or any combination thereof.Processes can communicate using a variety of techniques including butnot limited to conventional techniques for inter process communication,and different pairs of processes may use different techniques, or thesame pair of processes may use different techniques at different times.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modificationsand changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broaderspirit and scope as set forth in the claims. Thus, although specificdisclosure embodiments have been described, these are not intended to belimiting. Various modifications and equivalents are within the scope ofthe following claims.

1. A method, comprising: receiving, by at least one computing device, aconfiguration file for deploying resources to a new data center;compiling, by the at least one computing device, a second configurationfile based at least in part on received configuration file;transmitting, by the at least one computing device, the secondconfiguration file to a second computing device of the new data center;receiving, by the at least one computing device, a safety plan from thesecond computing device; comparing, by the at least one computingdevice, the second configuration file to the safety plan; determining,by the at least one computing device, whether the second configurationfile is a subset of the safety plan based at least in part on thecomparison; and in accordance with the second configuration file being asubset of the safety plan, deploying, by the at least one computingdevice, resources identified in the second configuration file to the newdata center.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least onecomputing device is located at a first geographic region, and the newdata center is located at a second geographic region.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the resources comprise infrastructure components of thenew data center.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the configurationfile comprises deployment instructions for deploying the infrastructurecomponents to at least one execution target of the new data center. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration file is received from auser device associated with the new data center.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein the second configuration file comprises a region-agnosticconfiguration file.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein theregion-agnostic configuration file comprises deployment instructionsthat are independent of a region configuration.
 8. The method of claim1, wherein the safety plan is generated based at least in part oncomparing a state of the new data center to the region-agnosticconfiguration file.
 9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumincluding instructions written thereon that, when executed by acomputing device, cause the computing device to perform operationscomprising: receiving a configuration file for deploying resources to anew data center; compiling a second configuration file based at least inpart on received configuration file; transmitting the secondconfiguration file to a second computing device of the new data center;receiving a safety plan from the second computing device; comparing thesecond configuration file to the safety plan; determining whether thesecond configuration file is a subset of the safety plan based at leastin part on the comparison; and in accordance with the secondconfiguration file being a subset of the safety plan, deployingresources identified in the second configuration file to the new datacenter.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim9, wherein the at least one computing device is located at a firstgeographic region, and the new data center is located at a secondgeographic region.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 9, wherein the resources comprise infrastructurecomponents of the new data center, and wherein the configuration filecomprises deployment instructions for deploying the infrastructurecomponents to at least one execution target of the new data center. 12.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, whereinthe second configuration file comprises a region-agnostic configurationfile.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim12, wherein the region-agnostic configuration file comprises deploymentinstructions that are independent of a region configuration.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein thesafety plan is generated based at least in part on comparing a state ofthe new data center to the region-agnostic configuration file.
 15. Asystem, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions that,when executed by the processor, configure the system to at least:receive a configuration file for deploying resources to a new datacenter; compile a second configuration file based at least in part onreceived configuration file; transmit the second configuration file to asecond computing device of the new data center; receive a safety planfrom the second computing device; compare the second configuration fileto the safety plan; determine whether the second configuration file is asubset of the safety plan based at least in part on the comparison; andin accordance with the second configuration file being a subset of thesafety plan, deploy resources identified in the second configurationfile to the new data center.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the atleast one computing device is located at a first geographic region, andthe new data center is located at a second geographic region.
 17. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the resources comprise infrastructurecomponents of the new data center, and wherein the configuration filecomprises deployment instructions for deploying the infrastructurecomponents to at least one execution target of the new data center. 18.The system of claim 15, wherein the second configuration file comprisesa region-agnostic configuration file.
 19. The system of claim 18,wherein the region-agnostic configuration file comprises deploymentinstructions that are independent of a region configuration.